American politics is a place to share free debate, discussion and disagreement. A place for believing that if you speak, others will listen. A home for your political life, with the news, views, friends and foes that come with it.

From the article by Molly Redden: "When Obamacare compelled businesses to include emergency contraception in employee health care plans, Hobby Lobby, a national chain of craft stores, fought the law all the way to the Supreme Court. The Affordable Care Act's contraception mandate, the company's owners argued, forced them to violate their religious beliefs. But while it was suing the government, Hobby Lobby spent millions of dollars on an employee retirement plan that invested in the manufacturers of the same contraceptive products the firm's owners cite in their lawsuit. Documents filed with the Department of Labor and dated December 2012—three months after the company's owners filed their lawsuit—show that the Hobby Lobby 401(k) employee retirement plan held more than $73 million in mutual funds with investments in companies that produce emergency contraceptive pills, intrauterine devices, and drugs commonly used in abortions. Hobby Lobby makes large matching contributions to this company-sponsored 401(k)."
- Stephen Mack
from Bookmarklet

And the last paragraph: "Similar options exist for companies that want to practice what's sometimes called faith-based investing. To avoid supporting companies that manufacture abortion drugs—or products such as alcohol or pornography—religious investors can turn to a cottage industry of mutual funds that screen out stocks that religious people might consider morally objectionable. The...
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- Stephen Mack

From the article: "The former Port Authority official who personally oversaw the lane closings at the George Washington Bridge, central to the scandal now swirling around Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, said on Friday that “evidence exists” the governor knew about the lane closings when they were happening."
- Stephen Mack
from Bookmarklet

"Carl Sagan inspired a generation of scientists with his work in and out of the classroom. But he didn't always present science with cheer. In this clip, he passionately defends science with a grave warning. It's something we all need to hear."
- Big Joe Silence
from Bookmarklet

"“I am pro-life,” she told a University of Texas at Brownsville crowd on Tuesday. “I care about the life of every child: every child that goes to bed hungry, every child that goes to bed without a proper education, every child that goes to bed without being able to be a part of the Texas dream, every woman and man who worry about their children’s future and their ability to provide for that future. I care about life and I have a record of fighting for people above all else.” “This isn’t about protecting abortion,” Davis explained in the same appearance. “It’s about protecting women. It’s about trusting women to make good decisions for themselves and empowering them with the tools to do that.”"
- Big Joe Silence
from Bookmarklet

she has my vote, her campaign will get donations from me and she may even (if my health holds) get my volunteered time.
- Big Joe Silence

"Der Spiegel suggests the US has been spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone since 2002. Another report says Mr Obama was told in 2010 about the surveillance and failed to stop it. The spy row has led to the worst diplomatic crisis betweeen the two countries in living memory. Leaked documents say a US listening unit was based in its Berlin embassy - and similar operations were replicated in 80 locations around the world. The German interior minister has been quoted as saying such an operation, if confirmed, would be illegal. On Friday, Germany and France said they wanted the US to sign a no-spy deal by the end of the year. As well as the bugging of Mrs Merkel's phone, there are claims the NSA has monitored millions of telephone calls made by German and French citizens."
- Big Joe Silence

"Summary: Twitter said today that it will begin censoring tweets, if required by law, on a country-by-country basis. Europeans and Americans, however, will most likely be affected."
- Jim
from Bookmarklet

"At the start of the current US budget standoff, other countries viewed the situation with a mix of sympathy, concern and bemusement. With the 17 October deadline for raising the debt ceiling approaching, however, the international view has changed to fear and anger. While many abroad have considered a US government shutdown unfortunate and potentially damaging to the global economy, it is a development the world has survived before. But the last time the US failed to repay a sovereign debt obligation was in 1790, when the country was a backwater ex-British colony, a bit player on the world stage. More recent examples of sovereign default include Mexico (1982), Russia (1998), Argentina (2001) and Greece (2012). Each of those sparked global financial crises that required US intervention. It is unsurprising, then, that with the US itself possibly causing the economic conflagration, foreign observers are hitting the panic button."
- Big Joe Silence
from Bookmarklet

"What is chilling is that US politicians are willing to engage in a game of brinkmanship that is tantamount to detonating a nuclear device over their economy," writes the Times of India. "A bunch of intransigent American politicians are holding not just President Barack Obama, but the entire world to ransom."
- Big Joe Silence

"The Economist writes that hitting the debt ceiling could mean the US would "slash spending so deeply that it causes a recession. Or it could default on its debts, which would be even worse, and unimaginably more harmful than a mere government shutdown. No one in Washington is that crazy, surely?" It's a rhetorical question, but one that many in the world are starting to take seriously."
- Big Joe Silence

"House Republicans continue to be outraged about the fact that, when they shut the government down, even the parts that they liked got shut down. Specifically, various memorials in the nation's capital, led of course by the World War II Memorial. Naturally, being outraged Republicans, they're prepared to spend more time and energy investigating why the memorials are closed than attempting to reopen the whole government and the monuments right along with it."
- Big Joe Silence
from Bookmarklet

"US President Barack Obama has vowed not to allow Republicans to undermine his signature healthcare legislation as a condition to restart the US government. The government has partially shut down after the two houses of Congress failed to agree to a new budget, with Republicans insisting on repeal or delay of Mr Obama's health law. "They demanded ransom," Mr Obama said. More than 700,000 federal employees face unpaid leave, and national parks, museums and many buildings are closed. On Tuesday, Mr Obama blamed conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives for the shutdown, saying "one faction of one party" was responsible because "they didn't like one law". "They've shut down the government over an ideological crusade to deny affordable health insurance to millions of Americans," Mr Obama said at the White House. He insisted Congress "pass a budget, end the government shutdown, pay your bills, prevent an economic shutdown"."
- Big Joe Silence
from Bookmarklet

"While the Democrats appear united in their opposition to opening discussions on changes to the health law known as Obamacare, signs of fissures have begun to show within the Republican Party. Representative Scott Rigell broke ranks with Republican leadership and threw his support behind a budget bill that would leave the health law untouched. "We fought the good fight," he told the New York Times."
- Big Joe Silence

"And Representative Peter King told the Washington Post he was "the only one who spoke strongly in opposition" to the shutdown, describing his conservative colleagues as "living in their own echo chamber, hearing themselves and talking to each other"."
- Big Joe Silence

"While the Democrats and Republicans blame one another for the morass, a poll released on Tuesday suggested the American public was inclined to fault the Republican strategy."
- Big Joe Silence

"Former President George H.W. Bush served as an official witness to a same sex wedding ceremony on Saturday in Kennebunkport, Maine. Bush, along with his wife Barbara, participated in the wedding of Bonnie Clement and Helen Thorgalsen, who, a Bush spokesman said, are friends of the family. On Sunday, a photo posted on Thorgalsen's Facebook page showed Bush signing the couple’s marriage license with the caption: "Getting our marriage license witnessed!""
- Big Joe Silence
from Bookmarklet

"A San Antonio senior state district judge confirmed Thursday that he will name a special prosecutor to investigate possible charges of coercion and abuse of official capacity against Gov. Rick Perry. Judge Robert “Bert” Richardson said he expected to name someone early next week, at which time “an order will be prepared and filed with the court.” The investigation stems from the governor’s veto of $3.7 million annual funding of Travis County’s Public Integrity Unit. Perry acknowledged that he let it be known that if Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, a Democrat, did not resign her office following a DWI conviction, that he would cut off funding for the integrity unity. Perry, a Republican, would name Lehmberg’s replacement."
- Big Joe Silence
from Bookmarklet

"Lehmberg did not resign and Perry subsequently vetoed funding for the unit, which prosecutes corruption and public malfeasance. Among other cases, the unit has been investigating the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas — one of Perry’s landmark accomplishments. CPRIT is facing allegations of favoritism and mismanagement of public funding."
- Big Joe Silence

"After the Austin American-Statesman reported Perry’s challenge to Lehmberg, Texans for Public Justice filed a criminal complaint against Perry. The complaint cited state laws that prohibit public officials from abusing their office in coercing or bribing others."
- Big Joe Silence

"As Mother Jones revealed last week, Groundswell, the hush-hush right-wing strategy group partly led by Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, wanted to hype the Benghazi tragedy into a full-fledged scandal for the Obama administration, as part of its "30 front war" on the president and progressives. A secret audio tape of one of Groundswell's weekly meetings shows that prominent members of the group pressed House Speaker John Boehner and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the chair of the House oversight committee, to expand the Benghazi investigation and make this supposed scandal a top-priority for congressional Republicans. This recording indicates Groundswell's mission extends beyond message coordination to scandal-stoking."
- Big Joe Silence
from Bookmarklet

"As of yet, Boykin, Gaffney, and the other Groundswellers have not gotten the special Benghazi committee they wanted. But the recording shows that Groundswell has access to the top leaders of the GOP, and its reps are not reluctant to pressure those pols."
- Big Joe Silence

I believe this tactic is generally known as "throw shit at the wall to see what sticks".
- Steven Perez

What's the name of that debate technique where you just keep piling on bullshit and more bullshit and more bullshit so that your opponent can't even begin to debunk it, and you look like a master debater because it looks like you've got your opponent flummoxed?
- Victor Ganata

To be fair to Eisenhower, it wasn't so much that he felt those things should be as they were, but that he felt that the vast majority of US citizens would not abide a party that wanted to dismantle them. If anything, it presages the messaging campaign around discrediting or diminishing the opinion of those services in the eye of the public.
- Jennifer Dittrich

"On June 25, Texas state Senator Wendy Davis stood for 13 hours to filibuster against Texas Republicans’ War on Women. She did us proud, and it’s time that we made her governor of Texas. Current Republican Gov. Rick Perry may run for an unprecedented fourth term. A hypothetical poll in January had Sen. Davis trailing Gov. Perry by only six points––despite the fact that she had virtually no name recognition at the time. With changing demographics shaking up the Texas electorate, and Republicans continuously alienating millions of voters, Texas is ready to turn blue. Sign the petition drafting Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis to run for governor in 2014."
- Big Joe Silence
from Bookmarklet

"On the very same day that Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis (D) drew national attention for stopping a bill that would have closed every abortion clinic in the state and outlawed abortion after 20 weeks, the Supreme Court gutted the law that kept her in office in the first place. In fact, just an hour before Davis launched into her 13-hour filibuster on Tuesday, the Supreme Court struck down a portion of the Voting Rights Act that kept discriminatory voting laws from going into effect in areas of the country with histories of disenfranchisement. That includes states like Texas, where in 2011 the GOP sought to change the demographic composition of Davis’ district, who was elected in 2008 with strong support from minority voters."
- Big Joe Silence
from Bookmarklet

"As MSNBC’s Zachary Roth reported, lawmakers moved “tens of thousands of black and Hispanic voters into neighboring districts” and as a result, “of the 94 precincts that were over 70 percent minority, Republicans cut out 48,” effectively separating black and Hispanic voters and preventing them from forming a sizable majority."
- Big Joe Silence

"Davis and the Department of Justice used Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act — which allows the federal government to review election changes in areas of the country with a history of racial discrimination — to challenge the changes in court. In August of 2012, a panel of federal judges found that “substantial surgery” was done to predominantly black districts, cutting off representatives’ offices from their strongest fundraising bases, and blocked the changes."
- Big Joe Silence

"“We feel free because we lack the language to articulate our unfreedom.” —Slavoj Žižek. For me, Žižek’s words are even more potent in light of recent news about domestic surveillance programs. As a former contractor with the US National Security Agency (NSA), these issues hit especially close to home. During my service in the Korean military, I worked for two years as special intelligence personnel for the NSA, learning first-hand how to extract information from defense targets. Our ability to gather vital SIGINT (Signal Intelligence) information was absolutely easy. But, these skills were only applied outwards for national security and defense purposes — not for overseeing American citizens. It appears that this has changed. Now, as a designer, I am influenced by these experiences and I have become dedicated to researching ways to “articulate our unfreedom” and to continue the evolution of my own thinking about censorship, surveillance, and a free society."
- Big Joe Silence
from Bookmarklet

From the article: "In May, Maryland became the sixth state in as many years to abolish the death penalty. Across the nation as a whole, fewer criminals are being put to death. Last year, 43 were executed, down significantly from the peak of 98 back in 1999." [...] " 'Even in places where the death penalty is regularly used, it's slowing down and in some cases it's stopped altogether, so the public is not engaged with it,' says Deborah Denno, a law professor at Fordham University. 'For the most part, I see abolitionists being more successful than not.' "
- Stephen Mack
from Bookmarklet

Imagine what it would be like to be one of the 727 people on Death Row in California, where effectively you're in a limbo such that you don't know if or when you'll ever be put to death.
- Stephen Mack

It is weird contrasting that with Florida, where 1/3 death row inmates have been set free (due to information that invalidated their conviction, or outright proved their innocence,) and they're working to speed up the process. A significant number of those people would not have lived long enough to prove their innocence under the new law.
- Jennifer Dittrich

"A very funny interview with comedian Russell Brand who is setting out on a world comedy tour. Buy your tickets by visiting his website. Comedian Russell Brand terrified anchors on MSNBC's Morning Joe program by lecturing them about how the media distracts from real news by obsessing about superficial distractions.Brand almost immediately put host Mika Brzezinski on the back foot by describing his tour as an exploration of how Malcolm X, Gandhi, Che Guevara and Jesus Christ "are significant culturally and how icons are appropriated and used to designate consciousness and meaning....they're all people that died for a cause, they're all people whose icons are used to designate meaning, perhaps not in the manner in which they intended." Brand then poked fun at MSNBC's army of "actors" in the back of the shot who were supposedly tweeting, noting that they were merely a gimmick to create the impression that the program was a hotbed of news."
- Big Joe Silence
from Bookmarklet

"The anchors began to get visibly uncomfortable when Brand made the point that mass media was an operation in changing information "so it suits a particular agenda" and that viewers were being manipulated."
- Big Joe Silence

"Instead of addressing Brand's point, the anchors instead obsessed about the comedian's accent and his clothing. "You're talking about me as if I'm not here and as if I'm an extraterrestrial," responded Brand, "thank you for your casual objectification." "I'm a little nervous," retorted Brzezinski, presumably not used to entertaining guests on her program who act like real people."
- Big Joe Silence

"When the conversation began to break down, Brand asked , "Is this what you all do for a living?" before hijacking the broadcast to talk about Edward Snowden, the NSA spying scandal and Bradley Manning."
- Big Joe Silence

""Look beyond the superficial, that's the problem with current affairs, you forget about what's important, you allow the agenda to be decided by superficial information -- what am I saying -- what am I talking about -- don't think about what I'm wearing, these things are redundant, superficial -- don't be distracted," said Brand as Brzezinski physically cowered."
- Big Joe Silence

"Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) called out Darrell Issa today, and proved that President Obama was not involved in the IRS scandal by using transcripts that Issa refuses to fully release."
- Big Joe Silence
from Bookmarklet